FCA loan dollar volume to young, beginning, small farmers up

Loan dollar volumes by Farm Credit institutions to young, small and beginning farmers went up by 3.1 percent in 2017, but the number of loans to young and small farmers went down, while the number of loans to beginning farmers remained the same, the Farm Credit Administration reported Thursday.

The Farm Credit Administration board received a staff report on the Farm Credit System's Young, Beginning, and Small Farmer Mission Performance in 2017 at a meeting Thursday.

System institutions are required by law and FCA regulation to maintain programs to provide sound and constructive credit and related services to young, beginning and small farmers and ranchers, and must report annually to FCA on their lending activity to this group.

"Young farmers" are defined as those age 35 or younger, "beginning farmers" are those with 10 years or less farming experience, and "small farmers" are those with gross annual farm sales of $250,000 or less.

A presentation to the board listed the number of outstanding loans in each category, the number of new loans in 2017, and the dollar volumes associated with each.